EGLIDE

My local Lexus dealer told me it is not necessary to use 0W-20 in my 08 LS. The 2010's will all require it, he said, but my year can take either. He said they were using 0W-20, but now in the 08's switched back to 5W-30 unless requested to put in 0W-20. I just put in 0W-20 and although more expensive, think it is probably better all things considered. What do you all think?

humanoid

iTrader: (1)

You'll probably get better mileage with the 0w, but between the 2 there's not much of a difference in performance.

Craig B

There was a bulletin from Lexus a while back to only use 0W20. That's what I use and you can find it even at Toyota dealerships.

Craig

Johnny

I use 5W-20 as it is more widely available. However, if 0W-20 was, I would still us the latter here in the Northwest. If I was East of the Rockies, I would look for and use 0W-20.

tennisstar

could you repost bulletin for 0w20?

DrQuality

Earlier comments from Nospinzone, abs, Kennyr44 & Doublebase led me to suspect that this official 20 upper viscosity constraint was yet another Lexus Murica!-only rule … being tied to the US CAFE laws about auto manufacturers hitting fleet-wide MPG targets.

So I just spent an hour looking at Lexus LS460 Owner's Manuals from around the world. Only in the USA & Canada are the choices officially limited to 0w20 & 5w20. In Britain, Ireland & Australia, the owner is directed to choose the viscosity (appropriate to the operating environment) from among 0w20, 5w20, 5w30, 10w30, 15w40 & even 20w50. Even in ever-frigid Finland, Sweden & Norway, owners have access to all these viscosity options … and they were in fact all available in every Manual for the European Market that I opened.

As example, I've attached a copy of the relevant pages from the Irish-version of the 2011 Lexus LS460 Owner's Manual.

Very frustrating. Because of USA CAFE regulations that eternally increase MPG expectations, auto manufacturers are being forced to employ less viscous oil in order to gain greater fuel efficiency … at the expense of less actual engine protection. See https://bit.ly/3CtfrrM . The second graph at that website shows that a 30 upper viscosity oil (with a HTHS somewhat above 3.0) is maximizing engine protection … and at almost twice the rate of protection provided by an 20 upper viscosity oil (with an HTHS of about 2.5-2.7). And check out a few SAE Viscosity Temperature Charts; more than a few suggest that the protection of 20 upper viscosity oil begins to diminish after/around 75°F ambient, while the protection of 30 upper viscosity oil begins to diminish only after/around 95°F ambient. And Internet-searching on "5w20 5w30" brings up many on-point discussions, YouTube videos, etc. on this topic.

Perhaps if we had all been using 5w30 all along, those lower tension rings (also an artifact of CAFE standards) wouldn't be wearing out causing increasing oil consumption after 150k and such.

BlazeViper

Damn that's a good find. Perhaps this is the root cause of all these noisy LS motors???

DrQuality

Thank you for the kind words. I was reading up on the hesitation issue and found a post from another ClubLexus colleague (apparently living outside NA) on one of these boards making a brief statement about their manual mentioning 5w30. And several others had already said they believed the Lexus drive to 0w20 was basically CAFE-driven. So I decided to dig a bit deeper and see what all the other manuals said.

I found other tangent evidence as well. One example: YouTube video & another discussion about how recent Mustang engines have suddenly been re-speced to thin oil ... and they blamed CAFE MPG targets as the cause [ https://bit.ly/389vQ6N , https://bit.ly/3z91JZk ].

I will almost certainly go to a full-synthetic 5w30 from here on out, though I suppose I won't be going to TGMO or the dealership to get it. Still, I am sure that, with the ever-increasing spring & summer heat here in Vegas, my LS460 will appreciate it.

jdanielca

at minimum 5w30, I use 5w40 don’t use Toyota oils I use valvoline blue extreme

Tejas1122

how long have you been using the 5w40?

mileage?

I ask because my tuner friend told me I should switch to rotella t6 5w40.

Marc780

I'll weigh in on this ancient post since it's an important topic - anyway years ago I used to read the Smokey Yunick column in the old Popular Science magazines. Smokey was an old NASCAR mechanic and car builder and knew something about pretty much everything on a car. And his advice to people wanting to know which oil to use in their cars was always the same:

"Ignore what armchair experts might tell you if it differs with the automakers specs. Only use the weight and grade of oil your owners manual tells you to use and nothing else...they are the ones who designed and built the car and nobody knows what oil to use in it better than they do - don't try to be your own petroleum chemist."

SW17LS

Excellent advice